Pump and motor assembly



Dec. 31, 1946.

R. R. CURTIS ET AL PUMP AND MOTOR ASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 19, 1944 3Sheets-Sheet 1 ZZ-T RUsseIZ. CU2-fis.' .Hicken-i312. Gai/e5.

De@ 31, 1946 R. R.-`c.URT|s ErAL 2,413,5146

PUMP AND MOTOR ASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 19, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 3l,1946. v R. R. CURTIS Erm. 2,413,546

PUMP AND MOTOR ASSEMBI.

Filed Feb. 19, 1944 3 Sheets-Shet '3 84 Z-rg 5I l l P n M v80 Y PatentedDec. 31, 1946 Russell R. Curtis and Richard Ohio, assignors to Curtis L.Gates, Dayton, Pump Company, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of OhioApplication February 19, 1944, serial No.'52s,1oo

Our invention relates to a pump and motor assembly, particularly to aunitary booster pump and driving motor assembly for mounting within fueltanks, as for example, the fuel tank of an airplane, to be submerged inthe fuel.

An important object of our invention is 'to simplify the construction ofthe supportingl structure for the pump and driving Vmotor operatingelements by so designing the parts thereof that they may be formed by.die casting with elimination of the necessity for cores and materialgrinding or finishing, and so that these parts may be readily assembledand secured together to form the supporting structure for the pump andmotor elements.

Heretofore booster pump units-immersed in a fuel tank, such as a fueltankin the wing of an airplane, have -been inserted into the tankthrough a bottom opening thereof to be supported on the tank bottom. Itmay however be desirable to suspend the pump unit in the tank from thetop wall thereof and therefore a further object of our invention is toprovide a pump unit which may be either supported on the bottom of atank or which, by means of simple hanger mechanism secured to the upperend thereof, may be supi ported from the top wall of the tank.

Other and further objects of the invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art from the following detail description of the annexeddrawings which, by way of preferred example only, illustrate oneembodiment of the invention.

On the drawings:

Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section of a pump unit and a portionof a tank bottom wall and side wall;

Figure 2 is a section on plane II.-II of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a section on plane III-III of Figure 1;

, Figure 4 is a section ures 2 and 3; and

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view of the pump unit showing itsuspended within the fuel tank from the upper wall of the tank. I

Referring to Figure 1, the-supporting structure or frame work for thepump operating parts comprisesl the base casting III, intermediatecasting II, and the upper casting I2. The base casting II) is secured tothe intermediate casting II by screws I3 threading into the lugs I4 ofthe on plane IV-IV of Figintermediate casting. a sealing gasket I5being. -interposed between thecastings.l Opposed recesses I6 and I1 inthe base and intermediate castings form the pump chamber P, the castingI I having the throat flange I8 thereon surrounds claims. (ol. zzz-ass)ing the inlet passageway I9 to the pump charnber. Neck portions 20 and2| on the castings I 0 and II form the outlet passageway 22 from theDump chamber and terminate in annular walls 23 and 24 respectively onthe castings I0 and II which walls define the outlet chamber 25. At itsupper end the annular wall is of reduced diameter to provide the neck 26and the shoulder.21.

" As best shown on Figures 2 and 4, bosses 28 on the annular wall 24form continuations of the shoulder 21.

The upper casting I2 comprises the annular supporting wall 29,' themounting ring 30 and the walls or posts 3| extending between thesupporting wall andthe ring. The wall 29 at its lower end receives theneck 26 and seats against the shoulder 2l on the wall 24, the wall 29having seating bosses 32 for Aseating against the bosses 28 on the wall24, a sealing gasket 33 being interposed. Screws 34 extend upwardlythrough the casting Ill and the bosses 28 on the wall 24 and thread intothe bosses 32 of the wall 29, thusse- 4'curing the castings I0, II andI2 together. The

walls 3| extend 'diagonally upwardly from the wall 29 to support themounting ring 30 above and concentric with the pump chamber P.

The mounting ring 30 Asupports the electric motor structure M foroperating the pump. The field frame 35 of the motor structure seats onthe mounting ring 30 and is held in alignment thereon by the peripheralflange 36 on the ring. A top wall 31 rests on the field frame and screws38 extend through the top wall and thread into the field frame at thebottom thereof to securely clamp the top wall to the field frame. Thetop wall has the recess 39 for a carbon bearing 40 for the upper end ofthe shaft 4I of the armature 42. The bottom wall 43 of the field framehas the opening 44 for the carbon bearing 45 for the lower end of thearmature shaft, upper and lower thrust bearings 46, 41 engaging thecarbon bearings to hold the armature in proper position within the eldframe. 1

Th armature shaft has its lower end 48 reduced in diameter to leave ashoulder 49. The hub of the pump impeller 50 receives this end and hasthreaded engagement therewith as shown at 5I, a propeller 52 beingclamped to the armature 'shaft betweenA the impeller hub and theshoulder 49.

The motor assembly M is held on the mounting ring 30 by through bolts 53extending through the top wall 31. the field frame 35 andthe ring 30,and the lower ends of these bolts support hangers 54 for thefrusto-conical guide shield 55 which converges downwardly towardy thepropeller 52. The space between the ring 30 and rthe inlet throat iiangeI8 is surrounded by a screen 56.

Figures 1 to 4 show the unitary pump-motor assembly within a tank T andsupported from the bottom wall 51 of the tank. The bottom wall has theopening 58 through which the pump assembly is inserted upwardly forengagement ofthe peripheral portion of the base casting l with the tankbottom, the assembly being held in position by screws 69 extendingthrough holes 60 in the casting ing ring Bi seated against the innerside of the tank bottom wall around the opening 58. A gasket 62 isinterposed between the casting i0 and the tank bottom to seal againstleakage of fue1 from the tank, the casting i0 thus forming a closure forthe tank opening.

When the motor-pump assemblyis supported on the tank bottom, theelectrical conductors (not shown) for the motor may be extended througha passageway 63 provided in the base casting i8. When the motoroperates, the fuel flowing into the pump chamber is pumped by theimpeller 50 and is discharged through the outlet passage 22 into theoutlet chamber 25, the fuel, before entering the pump chamber, beingsubjected to the propeller 82 which beats out gas or vapor bubbles whichescape outwardly below the guide 55 and through the screen 56 into thefuel to pass up through the fuel for venting out at the top of the'tank.

A conduit iitting 88 and aclosure cap 85 are provided for alternateengagement with the wall 29 or the wall 23. As shown on Figures 1 and 4,the cap S5 seats in the wall 23 and the fitting 64 vseats on the wall 2Qso that the fuel from the pump will be dischargedthrough va hose 88 fromthe conduit iittlng to the exterior of the tank at the top thereof. Ascrew Si extending through the cap 88 threads into a sleeve 68 in thefitting 8d to hold the fitting and cap in service position. Should it bedesired to discharge the pump to the exterior of the tank at the bottomthereof, the cap and fitting will be interchanged, with the cap closingthe upper end of the outlet chamber 25 and the conduit extending fromthe lower end of the chamber.

It may be desirable to insert the pump-motor assembly into the tank fromthe top thereof and to suspend the assembly from the top wall of thetank. Figure 5 shows such an arrangement and simple means for suspendingthe assembly. A hanger 58, which may be tubular as shown, is providedfor the pump-motor assembly. The top wall 3l of the motor structure M isprovided with a circular upstanding boss iii for receiving the lower endof the hanger, the base portion 'il of the boss being inclined toreceive the inclined end l2 of the hanger. A clamping ring 13 surroundsthe hanger and the bolts 53 will then,

In and threading into a mount-` in addition to holding the motorassembly to the `mounting ring 30, hold the clamping ring 13 to tosecurely clamp the upper end of the hanger to the casting boss 15.

The outlet conduit iitting 64 is connected by a hose 80 with a fitting8| which extends into the 4 opening 82 in the "casting 14. Theelectrical supply conductors 83 for the motor extend upwardly through aboss 84 on the casting 14. The motor pump assembly with the hangerarrangement thereon is inserted through the opening 85 in the top wall86 of the tank and the casting 14 is then secured as by bolts 81. It isunderstood of course that the hanger 89 and the hose 80 may be of suchlength that the pump chamber will be close to the bottom of the tank.Before or after insertion of the motor-pump assembly, an elbow or othershaped fitting 88 is inserted into the'outer end of the opening 82 inregistry with the tting 8| and is held in place by a. screw 89 threadinginto a sleeve forming part of the iittlng 8l.

Thus, the same unitary pumping assembly may be mounted within a fueltank on the bottom wall thereof, as shown on Figure 1, or, by theapplication of simple hanger mechanism, the assembly may be suspended inthe tank from the top wall thereof as shown on Figure 5.

The three supporting structures i0, Il and l2 are of simple design sothat they may each be economically die cast without complicated coresand without need of any expensive grinding or finishing. These castingswhen detachably tted and secured together provide the pump chamber anddischarge passageway therefrom, and the mounting ring 30, which formspart of the ca'st- I ing l2, forms a rigid support for the motorassembly. The motor frame parts such as the `field frame and the outerwall i3 are of simple design so that they may be readily die cast with-Out material grinding or finishing. The hanger plate 14 and the clampingrings for the hanger mechanism are also of simple design and can beeconomically die cast. The hanger structure can be readily and quicklyapplied to the pump-motor assembly when it is desired to suspend theassembly in the tank from the top wall thereof.

It will of course be understood that various details of construction andarrangement may be Varied through a wide range without departing fromthe principles of this invention and it is therefore not the purpose tolimit the patent (granted thereon otherwise than necessitated by thescope of the appended claims. We claim as our invention:

l. A pump and motor assembly comprising a base casting and a companioncasting mounted thereon to define a pump chamber, said castings havinglateral extensions cooperating t0 define a discharge outlet passagewayfrom the pump chamber, a pump impelier operable in said pump chamber, athird casting mounted on the lateral extension of said companion castingand secured thereto and including a mounting ring above and concentricwith the pump chamber, and an electric motor assembly on saidmountingring having driving connection with said pump impeller.

2. In a pump and motor unit for insertion into a fuel tank through anopening in the tank wall, a supporting frame structure comprising a basepart adapted to be secured along its peripheral portion to the tank wallto span the tank opening, an intermediate frame part, and an upper part,said base part and said intermediate partl nular Wall defining adischarge chamber for said outlet passageway, said upper framepart'comprising an annular supporting base having walls extendingupwardly therefromy and terminating in a mounting ring above andconcentric with said pump chamber, said annular base on said upper framepart forming a continuation of the upstanding annular wall of saidintermediate part and being detachably secured thereto.

3. A pump and motor unit comprising a first Dump casing part defining apump inlet, and a pump discharge passageway portion spaced laterallyfrom said pump inlet, a second pump casing part cooperating with saidfirst part to define a pumping chamber and an outlet from the pumpingchamber to said discharge passageway, a motor support part having adepending portion carried on the discharge passageway portion of .saidfirst pump casing part, a motor casing carried on said motor support, atop wall for said casing, and through bolts connecting said top wall,said casing and said motor support together.

4. In a pump and motor unit, a supporting frame structure dening a pumpchamber with an outlet chamber at one side thereof, a discharge ttingmounted on said supporting frame structure in alinement with said outletchamber, walls extending upwardly from said fitting, a mounting ringsupported by said walls in spaced relation above said pump chamber, adriving motor supported onv said mounting ring, and an impeller in saidpump chamber driven by said motor. Y

5. A pump and motor unit comprising a supporting frame structuredefining a pump chamber'having a side outlet, said supporting framestructure at one side of said pump chamber deiining a discharge chamberlwith which the pump chamber outlet communicates, a supporting walldetachably secured on said supporting frame structure to form acontinuation of said discharge chamber, supports extending diagonallyupwardly from said supporting wall and terminating in a mounting ringabove and concentric with said pump chamber, a rotor in said pumpchamber, and a motor mounted on said ring and having driving connectionwith said rotor.

6. A pump and motorunit comprising a. su`p porting frame structuredefining a pump chamber having a side outlet, said supporting framestructure at one side of said pump chamber dening a discharge chamberwith which the pump chamber outlet communicates, a supporting walldetachably secured on said supporting frame structure to form acontinuation of said discharge chamber, supports extending diagonallyupwardly from said supporting wall and terminating in a mountingringabove and concentric with said- .fitting in place. i 7. A pump andmotor assembly for insertion into a fuel tankathrough an opening in thetank wall, comprising a frame structure deiining a pump chamber and apump discharge chamber at one side of the pump chamber, a dischargeframe mounted on said supporting lframe structure over said dischargechamber in alinement therewith, a supporting wall structure extendingupwardly from said discharge frame and terminating in a mounting ringover and concentric with said pump chamber, a rotor in said pumpchamber, a driving motor structure on said mounting ring having drivingconnection with said rotor, and a supporting iiange forming part of thepump and motor assembly for engagement with the tank wall afterinsertion of the assembly into the tank through the tank opening forsupporting the assembly in the tank. I

8. In a submerged type pump and electric motor unit including a framestructure deiining a pump chamber and having a motor supporting ring inspaced relation above the pump chamber together with a, motor eld framemounted on said supporting ring, the improvements of a top wall for saidfield frame, asupporting plate adapted to be attached to the top wall ofa, tank over an opening therein through which said unit may be inserted,a. hanger member suspended from said supporting plate, an attachmentmember on the lower end of the hanger member, and through boltsextending through the attachment member, the top wall for the fieldframe, the iield frame, and the supporting ring for simultaneouslysecuring the eld frame to the supporting ring, the top wall of the eldframe to the eld frame, and the attachment member to the top wall of thefield frame whereby the unit is suspended from said plate.

RUSSELL R. CURTIS. RICHARD L. GATES.

